Big Picture Exclusive Interview: Jeremy Dozier Dishes on 'Dirty Girl

With the recent announcement of the acquisition of Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl by the Weinstein Company for world wide distribution, as well as having his performance labeled as “an impressive debut” by the Hollywood Reporter,  it seems as though young actor, Jeremy Dozier, is soon to be a household name.  Dozier, however, exudes a sweet modesty and gratitude as he sits down with me for an afternoon coffee. There is a new glimmer in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed when we first met almost two years ago.  He has had, and is having an experience few Hollywood actors can boast of: success.

While in his senior year of college at The University of Texas, Jeremy noticed a nationwide casting call for the role of Clark, a gay teenager growing up in Oklahoma with a homophobic, abusive father (played by Dwight Yoakam). He and his roommate set up a video camera and a couple of lights in their dorm room and taped his audition. Not long after he was contacted by casting director Eyde Belasco and Abe Sylvia himself.  Dozier graduated from UT and was immediately flown out to Los Angeles for a callback. Dozier heard nothing back from anyone involved in the film for two years.

While in Los Angeles, Jeremy heard from a fellow actor in Stephen Snyder’s acting class about a great audition she had coming up for a film called Dirty Girl. “I called my agent right away and I said, ‘get me in that room!’” Dozier was promptly called back for a chemistry test with the film’s star, Juno Temple.

“Abe met me for coffee before the chemistry test and told me that I pretty much already had the part. He said he knew after seeing the first tape. His whole family confirmed that too. It was pretty amazing. I couldn’t believe it.”

Dozier and Temple hit it off immediately, and their relationship grew during the course of production. “By the time we finished filming we were best friends.”

Dirty Girl is an original story by Abe Sylvia that took seven years to get to the silver screen. Set in the 1980s in Oklahoma, Danielle (Temple) has been labeled the “dirty girl” of Norman High School, and with good reason. When Danielle’s inappropriate comments during a sex-ed class land her in the special education program, she meets Clark, an introverted closet-case.  Clark’s father has threatened to send him to military school to cure him of his “affliction”, and Danielle’s mother (Milla Jovovich) engaged to a arrogant Mormon (William H. Macy) . The two pair up and decide to make a journey to Los Angeles to find Danielle’s biological father in an epic road trip where the two discover themselves and the power of unexpected friendship.

“Over the course of the film we take the best parts of each other to make the best versions of ourselves.” Said Dozier, “The relationship [between Dozier and Temple] was already there, so we just got to go on set and play.”

Jeremy describes his first day on the set with Mary Steenburgen and Dwight Yoakam, who play Clark’s parents, “nerve wracking”.

“I kept thinking: one of these things is not like the others. This was my first film and the woman playing my mother was an academy award winner. I kept thinking they were going to replace me.”  Steenburgen came to Jeremy’s aid though, describing her first on-set experience in Goin’ South with director and star Jack Nicholson, and put him at ease.

Yoakam was also a gift to work with for Dozier. "the abuse scenes were kind of interesting to film because Dwight is nothing like his character. He is so funny and would be cracking jokes in-between takes and then snap right into character on action." He said. Yoakam was so on, and apparently so in the moment that Dozier never quite knew what was coming.

I was very excited to hear that Dozier also shares two scenes with Resident Evil star, and stellar actress, Milla Jovivich. “She’s talented and stunning. She was just walking around with no make-up, just natural, and looking better than all of us.”

The one on-set figure that Dozier had the most to say about was the writer and director, Abe Sylvia. “What’s great about Abe is that he knew the characters and the story inside and out. It was amazing getting to work with someone who was so versed on the project.” A passion project for the writer-director, Dozier describes him as a man that was happy to come to work every day. In fact, the set was such a joy to work on that the crew warned Dozier about future projects. “They said I was ruined for life.” He laughs, “They said, ‘not every set is like this’.”

Not every screening is like Toronto for a first time film actor, either. Jeremy got to see Dirty Girl for the first time in a sold out show of 600 viewers, laughing and crying with the film, and leave knowing that the film had sold for 3 million dollars.

Compared to John Ritter and quoted as being “a real discovery” by Variety Magazine, Jeremy was characteristically coy when I asked what is next for him. “I don’t want to jinx anything.” He said with a smile. He did tell me, however, that he just recently wrapped a new film called Rock Paper Scissors with director Jaymie Laforest, and can be seen on two up-coming episodes of iCarly with Jack Black.

Dirty Girl has not yet set a date for its release, but we can look forward to seeing the film sometime in 2011.

Editor's Note:  This was an GTBP exclusive interview.  Please let us know how you liked this article and whether you want to see more celebrity interviews in the future.

Comments

[MiMi]

Enjoyed the article. Excited to see the film.

[Dirty Girls]

I really enjoyed this article and I 'm looking forward to seeing the film.